The Desert Experience: Into the Desert
He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness.
He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.
(Deuteronomy 32:10)
The desert. Not a place we choose to be but a place of necessity. A common misconception is that once you become a Christian, life becomes a bed of roses, a smooth path, every need met, no bumps, bruises, or obstacles along the way. But God needs us to grow and mature and for that we need desert experiences.
In the Bible, “desert” is both a place and a metaphor. For the Israelites it was a place, a place of training and testing. For us, the desert is usually a metaphor, but like the Israelites it is also a place of training and testing. For it is in difficult circumstances that people find God. The Israelites’ physical walk in the wilderness is the blueprint God gives for our spiritual walk.
God could not leave the Israelites in Egypt. As the decades passed and the time of Joseph faded into distant memory, the Israelites started following the gods of Israel. Life was good in Goshen. It was a lush green area, the annual inundations of the Nile allowed abundant crops to grow. They ate well and lived in relative safety and comfort. So how do you get a satisfied people to leave their comfortable lives? Remove their comfortable existence and send a Pharaoh that made life so unpleasant the they cried out to God to be saved.
But God not only had to get the Israelites out of Egypt He also had to get Egypt out of the Israelites. So, into the desert they went.
Like the Israelites God will often lead us into a “desert” time in our lives. A time of hardship and struggle, a time when we learn His true character, when we learn to lean on Him only and where we grow close to Him. For it is in difficult circumstances that people find God. It is in the desert that we learn to know the living God.
Desert experiences may come in different forms such as desert silences when God seems distant and prayers are unanswered. Or a time of bitter water when you think the pain of the walk is over and you are about to be refreshed, only to find that the water is undrinkable and you have to carry on walking. Or you may find yourself in an overwhelming flood, trying desperately to keep your head above water and paddling frantically for a firm rock to stand on.
While each experience is trying and frightening, God is with you every step of the way. He may not lead with a visible pillar of cloud or fire, but His Holy Spirit is holding and guiding you. And you will come out to the other side. Stronger, more mature and with some incredible memories of how God met you in the desert.
And the key word is “remember.” Remember what God did, remember how He led you, remember how He provided for you, remember how He protected you. Remember the lessons you learned in the desert.
And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm (Deuteronomy 5:15)
